Aviation
Airships, Seaships, and Starships Welcome to the primer on airships, seaships, and starships. This small document will give you a bit of campaign description on ships so that you can have an imaginative knowledge of how they fit in the campaign, and a little bit of working knowledge of what each ship can and cant do. Types of ships and classifications: The most basic point to start out with is a brief discussion on types of ships. Given the tech level of the campaign, and sticking with historical norms, standardized designs of steam engines and machines is non existant. As a result, ships may have any number of purposes and roles that their designers uniquely give them. Hence, it would be impossible to simply list every type of ship available. Instead, we will just give a few classifications of ships, and a few general types. Roughly speaking, there are 3 broad categories of ships: airships, seaships, and starships. These should be relatively self explanatory, but it should be noted that they are not disjoint sets, and some overlap does exist. Some airships are also starships, some seaships also airships, etc. Airships: Roughly speaking, these are ships which operate at a low to high altitude, but are not equipped for extra atmospheric travel. Anything that has a ceiling of less than about 50 feet, is really more of a land ship, so instead, this class of vehicles is reserved for vessels that are outside throwing arm (roughly) in their ordinary operation. Typically, these vessels have a ceiling of about 15,000-25,000 feet, but some (such as the Rogue Asylum), have much much higher cielings. Anything that is capable of going into an orbit really belongs in the starship class. This class of ship is probably the most prevalent as the rigors of space travel tend to make those ships extremely narrow in focus and mostly just a transport class Starships: As mentioned above, starships are extra planetary vessels used mostly for transport, though a few maneuverable starships do exist. Roughly, there are 3 major types of starships; rocket pods, caravaners, and titans. Rocket pods are small, unmanueverable ships who have only minimal controls, and monitor fuel carefully, by far the most common starship. Caravaners are small ships which latch onto a caravan dock, and use their combined energies to move through space. Titans are massive massive ships, capable of space maneuverability, carrying other ships, passengers, and cargo. Very few titan ships exist. Seaships: Seaships are classic water bound vessels. These planets are over 80% water on their surface, so these ships are critically important. They have numerous subclassifications, as many and more than on real earth. Some of these are wooden sailing ships, others steam powered ironclads. Airship classifications: Airships are the most important ship, so we will give them some special attention here. Airships are of course, super varied, however, military matters of the last wars did standardize things a bit. While the created categories miss lots of ships, they do catch most ships in them. Several factions in the war created different classification systems. However, only a few survive in service. The fact that 3 classification systems remain in usage, shows how varied airships can be. Below are the different classes of ships. Imperial System: Designed by the imperial command and implemented in their shipyards, the most common standardization of ships is the Imperial System. To the victor goes the spoils, and I guess in this case they won the right to classify some ships. Class break down: National – A narrow category containing the largest ships in the fleet. Ships of this size are about the size of a city (several miles across), and are kept afloat with powerful technomancy. All of them have at least 1 technomancer commander in charge of directly maintaining the ships altitude. These ships are capable of out gunning any ship in any fleet, save another National class ship, and can easily obliterate ships of even State class. They are massive enough to contain a fleet comprised of carriers, destroyers, and battleships of their own. State – A narrow category reffering to the largest ships individual states in the republic are allowed to maintain in their personal airforce. Roughly, these ships are the size of a small to medium sized fort, and are capable of having any ship save a national class ship, transported on board. They too have technomancers keeping them afloat as naturally occurring technomancy parts do not work on this scale. State ships will blast anything but a national ship, and state ships out of the sky. Carrier – a broad category that includes any ship capable of transporting a squadron (8) of other ships. Technically, State and National class ships are carriers as well. Battleship – A narrow category of large combat oriented ships, designed for duking it out with other ships. Unlike destroyers, this ships primary weapon is its torpedoes, with its guns doing little more than clearing smaller ships from closing and boarding. These ships are powerfull, but are only a few city blocks in size, making a stark difference between them and National and State ships. Distinct from State and National ships, battleships are not large enough to house a full squadron of anything buy fighters and trolleys. Destroyer - Broad class. A small, lightly armored vessel who uses its powerful guns to punch holes in enemy formations. These ships are noted for having little to no torpedoes, and some of the largest cannons in the fleets. They are fast ships, often with good sensors. They have a small size, and are no more than a city block in length. Bombarmet – A broad class of ship describing ships who have no ship-to-ship guns, and instead are designed to attack ground installations. Usually no bigger than a house. Scout – A very broad class of ship. This is a catch all category designed to make many civilian ships fall into military classification so they can be claimed as property by the republic government. Essentially any small ship with some armament and good sensors is a scout ship. Fighter – A small attack ship in a broad class of vessels. The most distinct note of these ships is that they lack the ability to travel far from a base. Trolley – Small civilian ships. Very broad class. Essentially what makes something a trolley is its lack of weapons and small size (no more than room for 3). Transport – Another very broad class of ship. The essential distinction between this and a trolley is that transports have unlimited crew hold. Royal Classification: The royal system was in use by the royalty of Gaius Nebulous Prime, until the unification war which dethroned the king and put royal territory into republic possession. It is still in use today, as both a throwback, and because its classifications are more contiguous that the imperial system. Man-o-War – A broad category reffering to any design of a vehicle ranging from 2 city blocks in length, to 10. These ships are outfitted for a number of sub purposes, from bombardment, to direct enemy engagement. They are usually narrowly focused, and fly in a fleet of other Man-O-War’s. Their small size compared to state and national class ships should be telling as to why the crown lost. Unlike the imperial ships, these ships can often be run without a direct technomancer controlling them. Frigate – A very narrow category reffering to ships of 1-2 city blocks in length, and armed with a particular broadside, cannon armament. They are used in a fleet in conjunction with Man-O-War’s to help protect the flanks from fighters and small boarding ships. Destroyer – This category is not distinct from the imperial class of the same name. Striker – A narrow, and yet still broad class of ships. This class is that of a ship with some sort of stealth/cloak field/cloud cover capabilities, who uses a torpedo or missile as its primary weapon. They vary greatly otherwise. Transport – Not distinct from imperial class of same name. Carrier – not distinct from imperial class of same name. Fighter – Same as imperial class. Toy – Personal and civilian vessels. Primarily, this is a 1 person vessel, not designed exclusively for combat, though they can have personal defense weapons. Technomancy System: This system is that used by technomancers to talk about ships. It is popular with engineers and ship designers as it is technically the most reliable a classification. It contains numerous sub categories, but we will list just a few common ones. Batttlecruiser – A powerfull, technomancy run battle ship. Uses a technomancy steam drive to generate massive ammounts of power. Engineer needs to be a technomancer. Usually has over 100 active points of technomancy just in the generator alone. Classification is that of a ship with multiple technomancy parts, each totaling over 100 active points, and at least 1 technomancy weapon. Blink - A class of ships describing ships which have short range teleport on themselves. Generally this ship is built around a Roebelles device. At least 50 active points in this ship, all centered on a teleport power. Annihilator – A ship with a weapon exceeding 150 active points of technomancy. It uses this one gun to blow holes in other ships, such as National ships. Vapor – A small ship which uses a ‘cloud’ technomancy weapon. The weapon will typically be around 100 active points in its construction Warden - A technomancy ship which projects walls and defensive objects. Licensing and regulation Aviation on the planet is extremely popular and valuable. As a result, detailed and complicated licensing and regulation standards exist that did not exist on earth in a corresponding time period. Almost every city or village is equiped with a radio for contacting airships, and has an aviation officer for monitoring protocals. Owning a ship requires training and licensing, and most parts yards are required to log all sales of ships and parts based on purchasers aviation permit numbers. 'Federal Aviation License: ' The Federal states all employ a Federal Aviation License which anyone who desires to opperate a vehicle with a cieling of higher than 50 ft must obtain. To get one, pilots must attend a 6 week course in basic aviation in order to be granted a Class 1 license which grants the ability to fly Yacht and Toy class vessels. The cost of the license is 50 credits, permiting most civilians the opportunity to gain such a license. The licensing board has 5 other license categories for individuals to obtain as well. Each class requires a seperate 6 week training course, and is awarded upon passing the course exam. Each license costs double what the previous one cost. Class 2: These licenses grant access to tankers, trolleys and transport ships Class 3: These levels of licensing grants the right to opperate carrier class ships. Class 3 license is generally the highest license a civilian can go and higher classes are reserved for military personelle, or military trained personel. Class 4: This license grants the obtainer the opperation ability of fighters and similarly classed ships, generally fighters, scouts, and bombardment ships. Class 5: This license grants the right to pilot and operate all other standard ships not found in the previous class designations, such as national and state ships. This doesn't grant the holder the right to own them, merely the right to pilot them. Class 6: This level of license is reserved for technomancers, and is granted only to them. It permits a technomancer the ability to pilot any 'technomancy' classed craft that he can pilot with his other licenses. '''Aeronautic Radio Emporium: '''The Aeronautic Radio Emporium or the ARE sa it is called, is the official national radio channel for communicating on used airships and used airship components. Individuals are encouraged to do all their parts and ship purchasing on the ARE and parts found purchased off of it can be siezed as contraband. Sellers register products and ships with the ARE contact in their town of buisness (usually a scrap yard), for a minimal fee. Purchasers make inquiries directly to the ARE contacts and get information on what parts are available. The station is on a band of channels from 1700 KhZ to 150 KhZ varrying from vity to city, with assignments being given by incoproration of a particular scrap yard to the system. In general, parts purchased on the ARE are very high quality, with the scrap yard handling the part or ship giving it a quality rating based on inspection. This makes these parts and ships extremely reliable for purchase but at an added cost. The parts and ships are also ready to sell, and often able to be shipped. Since this is the official channel, items are carefully monitored for their legality and other factors, and both purchasers are sellers are recorded by the ARE. The ARE also maintains service personelle at each ARE station, as well as licensing services and inspection stations. '''Immelmann Parts Warehouse: '''Another official channel available to people is the Immelmann Parts Warehouse or IPW. This 'warehouse' is the National Manufacturing Supply's official store yards. Individuals can make inquiries with the warehouse and arrainge purchase of parts and ships through them. The warehouse is essneitally a wholesale distributor and not a retailer itself. As a result, one must have a special permission to purchase parts from the IPW. Generally this is aquired by purchasing the right on auction when the IPW puts new vendor licenses up for sale or auctions off siezed licenses, however individuals are sometimes granted access to purchase from the warehouse as a whole, or from specific stockpiles in the IPW. Prices in the IPW are cheaper than one will find on the open market, and parts and ships are in just manufactured condition and usually carry a waranty for a few years, or thousands of miles. '''Independent Parts Retailer: '''The last official option is for people to purchase parts from Independent Parts Retailers or IPR's. These are individuals and buisnesses that have an IPW license. They are permitted to then sell the goods, providing they record the sales according to protocals. Since the parts are brand new, they come with a waranty, same as if purchased in the IPW. The price is higher than direct IPW purchasing or ARE purchasing but vendors are free to conduct their buisness as they see fit, including sales and other deals. '''Private Parts Transactions: '''Private sale of parts and ships is not strictly legal in the republic. Despite this fact, private transaction laws are rarely inforced and the further one is from the Core, the more they are flaunted. Individuals often sell parts and ships to people they meet or are introduced to. As a lot of parts are custom manufactured, they bear no manufacturing identification numbers. Since private production of ship parts for personal use is perfectly legal, ships found with such parts are 'assumed' to have manufactured them themselves and no trouble is made. If the part is particularly suspect (such as having technomancy components) a small bribe is usually all that is needed to get past an inspection. While all Federal States are subject to these restrictions, some Confederate States however have a legal right to maintain personal parts transactions as part of conditions for joining the republic, so long as the individuals log the sales record with the ARE. Most notable of these states are the Sarapian states of the northwest. '''Black Market: '''As with all goods, purchase of ship parts and ships can be conducted on the black market. Just dont get caught.